Showing Fresh Produce of Vegetables and Fruits in Stores

In many food stores or departments, among the first things the shopper meets after entry is the display of fresh produce of vegetables and fruits. It is often the first station in the shopping trip. The produce may be presented on counters or ‘gondolas’, positioned in the centre of a wide-spaced area, and on shelves along a wall. In purpose, the vegetables and fruits should signal right away the freshness and quality of food in the store. Furthermore, a thoughtful play with the colours of vegetables and fruits can make their display more aesthetically appealing to the eye. Whatever technique is employed in showing the fresh produce, the aim is to make it inviting for the shopper to get close and start picking items from the display.

The supermarket pictured below built platform blocks from green cases wherein produce is brought in from the farmers. The top cases contain the vegetables or fruits on sale, ready for shoppers to choose from and put in their baskets.

More merchandise is placed in cases on shelves along the back wall. This display emphasises the freshness of produce that recently arrived to the store, perhaps from a farm nearby (the store is located in a countryside region in the mountains). It may also hint that the merchandise moves quickly so there is no time or no need to re-arrange it on fixed counters or shelves.

The central display of produce in the supermarket shown next includes a couple of gondola-like fixtures, customary in food stores.

Attention is dedicated in the store to the colourful visual merchandising of the vegetables and fruits, giving them a more joyful and appetising look.

(Additional merchandise is placed in cases on a counter and shelves along a wall beside this display.)

Yet lately the same supermarket store replaced this furnishing with a different style of display fixtures.

The new design is in wood, with large built trays for holding produce and a ‘roof’ of bright wooden beams. It resembles counters typical to markets set on weekends in villages and towns in Europe.

It is still a city supermarket store, but it helps to change the atmosphere to the better (including the lamps that pour light on the vegetables and fruits).

Cases with more produce are in waiting below for replenishing the merchandise in the trays when needed.

Altogether, the new display setting delivers a stronger message of plentiful fresh produce of vegetables and fruits brought from farmers in the countryside.

In the last example, a platform is constructed of wooden cases and a desk with elevation. Vegetables and fruits are neatly displayed on top in baskets or cardboard cases. This display gives a feeling of an exhibit in a farming fair.

Different forms of displays of vegetables and fruits are designed in an effort to convince shoppers that their produce is newly-arrived and fresh, coming as frequently as possible from the fields, plants or greenhouses where they are grown. The store may stage its display so as to suggest that the produce is arriving from a source just around the corner. Visual merchandising of the vegetable and fruit produce is important for creating an appetising and appealing look to shoppers. But it should also be apparent to the shoppers that the quality of fresh produce matches the associations that the whole display is meant to instill in their minds. The impression generated here may reflect on other products offered in the food store or department.